La Belle Dame sans Merci – I

Pubblicato da Claudio Capriolo

Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1847 - 28 aprile 1935): La Belle Dame sans Merci, ballata sinfonica op. 29 (1883) ispirata dall’omonima ballata di John Keats. Orchestra filarmonica di Malta, dir. Michael Laus.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
  Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
  And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
  So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
  And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
  With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
  Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
  Full beautiful — a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
  And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
  And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
  And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,
  And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
  A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
  And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said —
  ‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,
  And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
  With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
  And there I dreamed — Ah! woe betide! —
The latest dream I ever dreamt
  On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
  Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried — ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
  Thee hath in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
  With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
  On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
  Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
  And no birds sing.

16 pensieri riguardo “La Belle Dame sans Merci – I”

    1. Yes, however there are few connections between Chartier’s poem and Keats’s. Chartier’s La Belle dame sans mercy shows that men’s servility to women often ends in disastrous ways, while Keats’s ballad has more to do with the allegory of death.

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        1. Sto preparando una serie di post dedicati a Shakespeare e la musica: composizioni su testi del Bardo o da lui ispirate, ma anche le musiche di cui è prescritta l’esecuzione nei suoi drammi e altre curiosità. Siccome intendo preparare tutto come si deve penso che ci metterò un po’ di tempo: dedicherò al progetto il prossimo mese di settembre. Ovviamente tengo moltissimo alla tua opinione 🙂

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